ᴥ A couple of flukey bounces go your way for a change.
ᴥ The other guys’ goalie looks shaky, while your own stopper is a wall.
ᴥ A defenceman scores at even strength for the first time all year, and another d-man repeats the feat on the very next goal.
ᴥ Ben Eager scores.
ᴥ Lennart Petrell picks up not one but TWO assists, one of them on an actual pass.

So it was in Dallas on Thursday night, when the Edmonton Oilers took advantage of those bounces, some excellent goaltending by Devan Dubnyk, and a much more disciplined performance than their hosts to roll to a comfortable 5-1 win over the Stars. While the team may have wasted a goal or two that could have better served on another night, it was a very pleasant change to see them playing with a comfortable lead and taking it right to the final buzzer. Kind of fun to watch Hall and Eberle play Ding Dong Bell with Kari Lehtonen’s posts in the late stages without really caring that they didn’t actually score. It was garbage time by then, really the first such the Oilers have enjoyed all season. After all, each of their three (3) regulation wins that preceded this one featured an empty net goal for the good guys, meaning all were still in doubt near the end. This one wasn’t.

The biggest concern was the health of a couple players, notably Corey Potter and Ryan Jones who were in the room before the final buzzer. Ladi Smid missed a chunk of time but managed to return after being on the receiving end of a particularly rude hit, while Jordan Eberle and Sam Gagner survived assassination attempts by a plow horse named Brenden Dillon. That’s “plow” as in “plow you right through the boards given half a chance”. Buddy is already giving me recurring nightmares of old Texas Crude himself, Derian Hatcher.

Never mind that, on this night he was a loser and a deserving one at that as the Oil had their way with the Stars for a change. With the regulation win Oilers remained stuck in 12th place for now, but moved to within two points of (get this) fifth in the Sardine Conference.

Player Grades

The following are the player grades for the Oilers, with 10 being a “perfect” game, 9 extraordinary, 8 great, 7 good, 6 above average, 5 average, 4 below average, 3 poor, 2 terrible and 1 deserving of almost instant demotion. Compiled by Bruce McCurdy.

#2 Jeff Petry, 7. Some gaudy numbers for Petry in what was a high-event 24 minutes of work for the rangy rearguard. Start with the good: a goal, an assist, and +2; 4 shots, 4 hits, a takeaway, 5 blocked shots. On the negative side, Petry was mashed on shot attempts (Corsi of +15/-29) and scoring chances (Neilson number of +2/-6, worst on the club), and took a couple of penalties. Score one for results over process; by eye he played a key role in the win. Dubnyk was his friend, though.

#4 Taylor Hall, 6. An uneven effort but overall OK results with an assist, a team leading 5 shots, and some strong contributions on the powerplay which produced a lot more chances than it did actual goals. On the bad side, a poor decision and a worse pass on a 2-on-1 that Eberle couldn’t have handled with a lacrosse stick, and a brutal giveaway that resulted in a clear breakaway for the d-man Dillon of all people, right from his own blueline.

#5 Ladi Smid, 6. Took a couple for the team and spent some time in the quiet room after a hard collision between his face and Brenden Morrow’s butt left Ladi seeing stars asteroids. For sure, he got rocked! After the Oil spent quite a bit of time with just four D, Smid returned early in the third to help see this one out. 4 blocked shots, 3 hits.

#14 Jordan Eberle, 7. Two first assists, including a gorgeous feed to J.Schultz on the game winner. Best even-strength Corsi on the team at +13/-7. Made a couple other tasty dishes, and absolutely rang the iron with a wicked shot on the late-game 5-on-3 that sounded like a bell choir practice. He was one of three Oilers to be driven head-first into the boards when Dillon rammed him from behind late in the first, luckily no harm done.

#15 Nick Schultz, 7. Solid two-way game, leading all d-men at even strength in Corsi (+16/-13) and Neilson numbers (+3/-2). I was more impressed with his work on the PK, which included some strong one-on-one play, some good defensive stops, and a drawn penalty.

#19 Justin Schultz, 8. One of my earliest game notes was “19 moving better?” His game seemed to have its fluidity back after what has been a pretty rough stretch for the rookie, whether due to physical woes, hitting the wall, or [insert pet theory here]. Scored a gorgeous goal by activating from the point at just the right moment to spring into the open to take Eberle’s feed and fire past Kari Lehtonen, the first even strength goal of his career. Later added an assist on Hemsky’s powerplay goal. Played a team-high 25:30, created plenty from the blueline and stayed out of trouble in his own zone.

#20 Eric Belanger, 5. Got smoked at evens by possession numbers, albeit in a steady diet of Stars stars Benn and Jagr. Did his best work on the penalty kill, where he led all Oilers with 5:28, as the unit killed off all five penalties.

#28 Ryan Jones, 7. Has delivered a jolt of just-what-the-Oilers-needed since his return to the line-up three games ago. Oilers are 2-0-1 in that time, which is hardly all on Jones though he has changed the look of the top nine for the better in my view. Case in point was the first goal, where Jones didn’t get credit for a point, but his presence at the edge of the crease contributed a little chaos and what became a good bounce off the Stars defenceman who was trying to cover him. Had some nice crooked numbers with 3 shots, 3 blocked shots, and 4 hits, with the latter two leading all forwards. Also had a nice night on the PK. Took a wicked crosscheck in the back from a clearly frustrated Jamie Benn in the dying minutes that got the the Stars top player tossed from the game. That also ended Jones’ night a little early as well, but he did manage to leave under his own power.

#37 Lennart Petrell, 6. Secret weapon connected for two assists after collecting his first apple in 40 games in Chicago. One was a cheapie, and the prettier one was in garbage time, but he was moving the puck better and more confidently than we’ve seen in a while. Cleared the zone three different times with good passes, a change of pace from his usual M.O. of dump-it-out, dump-it-in. Two of those came on the PK, where he was a solid contributor for 4 minutes and change. Despite the +2, his line struggled at even strength (Corsi of +5/-14), although that’s not too surprising considering how much they saw of Benn and Jagr.

#40 Devan Dubnyk, 8. An outstanding performance just when both he and the team needed one. Looked refreshed after his week off, calm and confident in the crease, not much sign of overplaying shots as he had been doing in recent games. Made a number of ten-bell saves, frustrating Benn in particular by turning aside all 8 of his shots. Made a couple of fine stops off of Jagr, who did manage to break the shutout with a late consolation goal, his third snipe in three games against the Oil this year. This one didn’t hurt anywhere near as much as the first two, in large part thanks to Dubnyk’s stellar performance to that point and the fact he had some actual goal support for the first time in weeks. 34 shots, 33 saves, .971.

#44 Corey Potter, 4. Struggled early, especially on one brutal shift that featured consecutive bad giveaways. His night ended late in the first when he got his head smashed in by an ornery buffalo named Eric Nystrom. Went to the quiet room and did not return.

#45 Mark Fistric, 8. There are different ways to interpret what defines “great”, but my perhaps whimsical take is that this was a great night for Mark Fistric. This Oiler fan was hoping for the shutout more for his sake than I was for Dubnyk’s, but a 5-1 spanking of his former mates right in his old barn had to taste mighty good. He himself got spanked by possession numbers (Corsi +7/-24) including some rough shifts with Petry after both lost their original partners, but like a good sixth defenceman should, he brings elements this team sorely needs. He blocks shots, for one thing, with a team-leading 6 in this one to personally erase a quarter of those negative Corsi events by not allowing the shot to get anywhere near Dubnyk’s net. He’s a crusher, not a rusher, and proved it again by also leading the team in both hits (5) and giveaways (2). Really belted Jagr with as punishing a hit as I’ve seen the big Czech take since his return to the NHL. Took a couple of penalties and a couple of pounds of flesh in the process. I especially didn’t mind the coincidental roughing penalty he took for decking Antoine Roussel when the pugnacious Frenchman tried to take liberties with RNH. The kid was handling himself OK when bam! Roussel was on his ass AND headed to the penalty box. Having caught a bellyful of Roussel’s act down in the AHL this year, I happily gave Fistric a +1 for that play alone. Hell, maybe +2. Did a perfect job of “protecting” his teammate without a punch being thrown, just by a) being OK enough at hockey to be on the ice at regular intervals and b) stepping up and making his presence felt when the circumstances called for it. No muss, no fuss, no bother. Situation: defused. I’ll take that over a four-minute-a-night gooneybird seven days out of seven, thank you.

#54 Chris VandeVelde, 5. Nothing special, but solid enough. Played just 6 minutes, least on the team, but had a couple of hits and posted a decent 4/7=57% on faceoffs, including 3/3 against Benn. Despite occasional unfavourable match-ups like that, he came out even on Corsi, and a +1 on the big board which is always a bonus from a fourth-liner like CVV. With both Jones and Petrell back in the line-up, I’ve noticed that Krueger hasn’t let him anywhere near the penalty kill the past two games.

#55 Ben Eager, 5. I would have preferred he scored his first of the year at a more opportune moment than simply piling on to a four-goal lead, but Eager has a track record as an occasional scorer so he might as well start somewhere. It was a decent snipe off a nice feed from Petrell that surprised everyone in the rink including Lehtonen, who didn’t appear well set for the shot. Some nights they just go in. Eager also had three hits, took a dumb penalty, and got smoked on possession (Corsi +7/-15), so more or less another night at the office.

#64 Nail Yakupov, 5. A quiet night for the most part, but that’s by no means all a bad thing. No official points, but points for hustle in the defensive zone a time or two. He has a tendency towards what I’ve long called “hero plays”, selling out to break up the rush or clear the zone, but he’s usually successful when he does so. No doubt he’ll learn that oftentimes less is more, but I’d rather be teaching that to an enthusiastic participant in the process than some guy watching from the next zone.

#83 Ales Hemsky, 8. A three-point night automatically qualifies as a great game on this goal-starved team, just the second time it’s happened all season. Ales was a little fortunate to get an assist on both of the tainted goals, although the one he snapped home himself had no odour to it other than pure sweetness. Was involved in 11 of Oilers’ 25 scoring chances in the game, 8 of those on the powerplay.

#89 Sam Gagner, 7. Kept his early season hot streak going with an early, lucky goal, proving yet again that getting the puck to the net with traffic in front is always often a good idea. Was involved in a couple of nice combination plays with Hemsky and Jones. Defensively he had a couple of standout plays founded in tenacity, and one entire shift that he apparently slept through as he floated around the periphery. It still doesn’t come naturally to him, that part of the game. He dropped the gloves with Dillon after the Dallas ruffian introduced Sam’s head to the glass with a rugged check. Given it was the third such shot absorbed by an Oiler (not counting Morrow’s butt check) and the second to have been administered by Dillon, Sam’s decision to take matters into his own hands was understandable. I didn’t mind it, I’m no fight fan anymore but there are times when you have to take a stand. Just the Oilers’ third fighting major of the season, fewest in the NHL.

#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 7. Defence does come naturally to this kid, and he’s been showing it night after night with his dogged puck pursuit and sound transition game. His six controlled zone exits were the most on the team. Drew two penalties. Had an outstanding night in the faceoff circle, winning 14/19=74% including a solid 6/9 in the defensive zone, a welcome development in more ways than one. At the good end of the ice he’s the anti-Gagner, as he can’t seem to buy a goal or a point no matter what. If the chances weren’t there it would be worrisome, but there have been quite a few nights like this one with eight chances that could have yielded two or three points but instead the needle stayed stuck on zero. Missed one opp by firing over the bar (as has become an annoying habit this season), but was flat-out robbed by Lehtonen a couple times, and on the wrong side of the inch a couple other times. Played a key role on J.Schultz’s game winner with an impressive display of puck control under pressure, and was rewarded with the mythical “third assist”. So it’s been going for the Nuge.

#94 Ryan Smyth, 5. His usual honest night’s work along the boards, rather surprisingly leading the forwards with four hits on a night the physical game played a significant part. Tested Lehtonen a couple of times along the way while giving up little the other way. Was nice to see him smiling on the bench with the game well in hand down the stretch.

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